Ancient Hopi Mesa journey to explore culture and history

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THE ANCIENT WAYS

OF THE HOPI

The Ancient Ways Of The Hopi

Take this rare invitation to travel with unprecedented access to the secluded Hopi Mesas; a place of stark and beautiful endurance where the clan lifeway is about raising the short blue-eared corn which symbolizes the homelands, culture and responsibilities given to the Hopi clans by Ma'saw as they emerged from the Third Way of Life to this, the Fourth World.

Second Mesa is the base for this extraordinary and unique opportunity to spend time on the mesas and in the villages, accompanied by Hopi interpreters, learning about their cultures and history, through traditional and evolutionary arts - silver, kachina doll carving, basketry, music and song, and through Hopi cultural perspectives on agriculture, foods, traditional and contemporary tribal leadership and philosophy.

The ancient Hopi made a purposeful choice for The People’s place of dwelling in this Fourth World; arid, stark desert conditions with hardships and challenges that would ensure the Hopi have to become strong and retain the truly important things of life to thrive, or even survive on this terrain. To this day, as from their first arrival, the Hopi ‘dry farm,’ meaning they don’t irrigate – they are dependent on the winter snows and summer monsoon rains to bring moisture for the corn.

Agriculture is an act of faith for the Hopi that serves as a religious focus as well as an economic activity, and working plots provide crops unique to the Hopi diet in addition to reinforcing traditions and customs in each new generation, for as one Hopi gardener said, "This is not just about growing vegetables; it is about growing children."

This journey offers a remarkable hands-on opportunity to learn Hopi agriculture as a practical enactment of the Sacred.

It is said that information and stories entrusted to each Hopi are more than enough to consider and meditate upon during a lifetime. Despite a plethora of books that routinely corrupt cultural ways beyond Hopi recognition, true preservation of the lifeway is attributed by traditional people to their ideology of passing ceremonial information to other clan members within the Kiva. The culture endures because no individual has access or responsibility for the entire sacred narrative and lifeway.

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Go Native America is a member of / promoted by:

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Tour Members Say...

The sights, sounds, smells and sheer wonderment at the beauty of all directions has been with us ever since our return. Not a day goes by without our talking of some aspect of our adventure, and at night I am transported to those stunning plains and mountains, and the people we met. Gretchen, North Wales

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Indigenous Wisdom

If you look at the earth, there are certain places that seem to have power and we don't know what kind of power it is, except you have a different feeling, You feel energized... For most Americans, the Holy Land exists on another continent. But for Native people,

the holy land is here.

Vine Deloria Jr.

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Go Native America is included in National Geographic Traveler's "50 Tours of a Lifetime"

Meet in Phoenix and arrive on the Hopi Mesas as the sun dips behind the desert vista

After an orientation on Hopi etiquette entitled: ‘Pahaana – Stranger in a Strange Land’, we are privileged to visit Walpi accompanied by one of the residents of the village who discusses the role of women in Hopi culture.

On First Mesa we visit a Hopi potter.

Hopi Arts and Crafts enthrall collectors around the world and on this journey Hopi Art is placed into a cultural context with special explanations of Katsina dolls and Basketry. We tour Supawlovi with a village resident, then spend time at the home and studio of a Supawlovi silversmith.

Our understanding of the importance of agriculture and traditional survival is expanded as we stand in a Hopi field for a theoretical and hands-on experience, after which, a bonus visit to a nearby archeological site and then we enjoy a traditional Hopi meal at the home of Janice Day.

When we visit Third Mesa, touring Oraibi – we include the abandoned section and a rock art site which is off limits to the casual tourist.

After an introduction to Hopi Philosophy, we visit the home and glass-blowing studio of our day's host, Ramson. Lunch is at a local eatery in Paaqavi village then we are introduced to Hopi Ceremonial textiles and the Hotevilla weavers. We have opportunity to visit Hotevilla Spring and terraced gardens, and we are invited to dinner this evening at Ramson’s home.

We visit what is probably the finest single rock art site in the southwest with over 12,000 petroglyphs at Taawa Canyon. Stand with respect before ancient petroglyphs that interact with the sunlight to mark the equinox and solstice – thus acting as solar calendars. We are able to ‘process’ the information and experiences we have had through the week with the help of all our Hopi guides at a question and answer session.

This journey takes place at a sacred point in the traditional calendar for the Hopi, and by invitation we may experience the presence of the Kachinas through on the mesas as these holy ones prepare to return to the Cloud House above the San Francisco Peaks.